Manush in quarters at Indore National

Gandhidham, Mar.10 : Vadodara-based Manush Shah stormed into the quarterfinals of the ongoing UTT 82nd Junior and Youth National Table Tennis Championships 2020 at Indore. Manush outplayed Vansh Singhal of Haryana in the Youth Boys’ pre-quarters.

Manush was in superlative form when he faced Vansh. The left-handed paddler and state Men’s champion Manush played some outstanding topspin to fox his opponent. “I was well prepared to play against Vansh, who uses long pips rubber in his backhand. Moreover, I scored good points on serves and first ball topspin,” said Manush after scoring straight games 11-7 11-4 11-8 11-7 win over Vansh.

In the earlier round, Manush had an easy outing when he recorded an 11-4 11-5 11-9 win over Solaiyan Karthikeyan. For a place in semifinals, Manush will take on Albuquerque Raegan of Maharashtra.

Meanwhile, Ishaan Hingorani cleared the qualifying round and made it to the main draw. He beat Shanmugan Tharun of Tamil Nadu 8-11 11-6 12-10 11-9 in the first round. However, in the next Ishaan went down fighting against higher ranked Anukram Jain of Haryana 5-11 11-9 6-11 11-9 6-11.

Dhairya Parmar and Kaushal Bhatt couldn’t make it to the main draw.

The Junior Boys qualifying rounds witnessed one of the finest matches when Surat’s Burahnuddin Malubhai defeated 13th seed Varun Ganesh of Tamil Nadu. Burahnuddin with some superb down the line and forehand winners kept Varun in check before closing the match with a 14-12 9-11 11-8 11-9 scoreline. The Surti also accounted for Aryan Kundal of Himachal Pradesh to make it to the main draw.

Burahnuddin who finished semi finalist in the State Championships held at Gandhidham got bye in the first round. In the following round, pitted against Sarth Mishra, Burahnuddin gave a good fight winning two games in the best-of-five game match. Unfortunately Sarth proved too strong for Burahnuddin and went down 3-11 11-7 11-3 8-11 8-11.

Abhilash Raval also made his mark as he qualified for the main draw by topping the group which comprised Dinesh Selvam (Jharkhand), Rimo Chakraborty (TTFI) and NM Amarnath (Pondicherry). In the first round Abhilash sent Rohit Shankar (TTFI) packing 11-6 11-5 11-3. Unfortunately, Abhilash ran out of steam in the round 2 against Deepit Patil. Abhilash bowed out with a 7-11 6-11 5-11 loss.

Gujarat’s hopes in Junior Boys event ended when Chitrax Bhatt lost a close pre-quarterfinal match against Agniv Gohain of Assam. The lanky Amdavadi lost the first game but fought back to make it 2-1. Agniv refused to give too, winning the fourth and the decider along with the place in quarterfinals with a 11-7 10-12 9-11 12-10 11-9 win.

In the previous round, Chitrax had beaten Ansh Goyal (MP) 11-9 9-11 11-1 9-11 11-1.

Results (Main Draw)

Youth Boys:

Ishaan Hingorani
Rd 1: bt Shanmugan Tharun (TN) 8-11 11-6 12-10 11-9
Rd 2: lost to Anukram Jain (Har) 5-11 11-9 6-11 11-9 6-11

Manush Shah
Rd 1: Bye
Rd 2: bt Solaiyan Karthikeyan (TN) 11-4 11-5 11-9
PQF: bt Vansh Singhal (Har) 11-7 11-4 11-8 11-7
QF: vs Albuquerque Raegan (Mah)

Junior Boys

Chitrax Bhatt
Rd 1: Bye
Rd 2: bt Ansh Goyal (MP) 11-9 9-11 11-1 9-11 11-1
PQF: lost to Agniv Gohain (Assam) 7-11 12-10 11-9 10-12 9-11

Abhilash Raval
Rd 1: bt Rohit Shankar (TTFI) 11-6 11-5 11-3
Rd 2: lost to Deepit Patil (Mah) 7-11 6-11 5-11

Buhranuddin Malubhai
Rd 1: Bye
Rd 2: lost to Sarth Mishra 3-11 11-7 11-3 8-11 8-11